


Maggottail

by JustAReader23346798



Category: Warriors - Erin Hunter
Genre: Animal Death, Cannibalism, Dark Forest (Warriors), F/M, ShadowClan (Warriors), cat death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-07
Updated: 2020-06-07
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:20:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24592930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustAReader23346798/pseuds/JustAReader23346798
Summary: The myth that bad leaf-bares can lead to eating kits comes from a horrifying real-life event.
Relationships: Hoofstar/Rosewing, OC/OC
Kudos: 10





	Maggottail

**Author's Note:**

> The Maggottail headcannon was created by warrior-thoughts over on tumblr! (https://warrior-thoughts.tumblr.com/post/186589321994/backstory-theory-1-maggottail)

Despair hung heavy in the air of the Shadowclan camp. A queen's soft sobs echoed through the otherwise silent clearing, every cat holed up in their dens sheltering from the thick layers of snow on the ground and the snowflakes that never seemed to stop falling.   
The thick collection of thorn bushes that formed the tunnel into Shadowclans camp trembled lightly as a warrior with an unkempt, ragged pelt that stuck out in different spots walked into camp. The starvation of his clan bore bare on him, every rib was showing and it looked as if a gust of wind could knock over the frail cat. In his mouth he carried four bundles of mangled fur, the most prey any cat had brought back for days.   
Before he even had the chance to drop his fresh-kill on the nearly nonexistent pile, a small cat with grey fur and long, white whiskers emerged from the warriors den, his eyes allight and his nose twitching. “Maggottail!” he exclaimed joyously, heaving his thin body out of the warriors den, which had been practically buried in snow. He bound over to the unkempt cat, Maggottail.  
“Where did you find so much prey?” the smaller cat asked, looking hungrily at the bundles of prey hanging from Maggottails jaws.  
“Did someone say prey?” a young tortoiseshell she-cat peeked her head out of the apprentices den, angling her ears towards the two tom cats. The moment she saw what Maggottail was carrying her eyes lit up, and she ducked her head back into the den before racing up to the two toms.   
“Maggottail!” She exclaimed excitedly.   
Other cats had begun to emerge from their dens, the excitement rousing them out of the warmth of their dens.   
Maggottail simply flicked his thin tail and padded towards the fresh-kill pile, dropping his prey before taking one for himself.  
“Where did you find them?”  
“Do you think there’s any more?”  
“Oh Maggottail, you’re wonderful!”  
The matted grey tom looked at the small crowd of cats that had surrounded him to praise him for his catches, a flicker of smugness igniting itself in his eyes.   
“They’re squirrels.” he answered simply, padding away into the warriors den with one of his catches between his teeth.   
The white whiskered tom prodded at the kills before saying, “Really? They don’t look like squirrels…”   
“Rats then.”  
“But they-”  
“Some twoleg pet.”  
“They don’t-”  
“Oh for Starclans sake, Stormwhisker!” the tortoiseshell from earlier exclaimed. “Who cares what they are! It’s prey!” The tortoiseshell picked up one of the bundles and raced off to the apprentices den. “Emberpaw’s right, Stormwhisker.” a dark brown tabby tom said, padding through the crowd to the fresh-kill pile. “With how little we have to eat now, we should be grateful our clanmate was able to find anything, not suspicious.”  
Stormwhisker bowed his head respectfully to the tabby tom. “You’re right, sorry Hoofstar.”   
The tabby tom stared at him for a moment. “Take one of these too the elders den and make sure Mothnose eats, don’t have a bite yourself until she has.”  
Grumbling about how that was an apprentice's duty under his breath, Stormwhisker picked up one of the mangled prey and carried it off to a hollowed out tree trunk lying tucked away in a corner of the clearing. Turning to an orange she-cat he murmured something before picking up a piece himself and walking to the nursery.  
As Hoofstar entered the den, the sobs that had been a mere echo in the camp became the only thing he could hear.   
The nursery smelled faintly of milk and no outside light entered the dimly lit den, and the only resident was the sobbing queen curled away in the darkest corner of the den.   
“Rosewing…” Hoofstar murmured to his mate through the prey in his jaws. The cream colored queen didn’t respond, only continuing her rhythmic sobs.   
Hoofstar padded closer to his grieving mate, setting the prey down before her. “Dear, Maggottail brought back prey.” The grieving queen only shook her head and curled up harder. “You haven’t eaten since our kits went missing. You need to eat.”   
Rosewing didn’t respond. “Love, you’ll starve at this rate-”  
“Good!” the queen suddenly exclaimed, poking her head out from under her paws to look up at her mate with glossy eyes. “Maybe when I join Starclan I’ll be able to see my kits again!”  
“Rosewing!” Hoofstar exclaimed, pressing his head against his despaired mate. “You must never say that, my love!” The brown tabby tom curled up around his grieving mate, who turned to bury herself in his fluffy fur. “Where would I be if you went to Starclan? Where would your brother be, your mother?” Hoofstar licked his mate's neck soothingly, purring to her as her sobbing and trembling steadied. “Do you think Mousekit would want you to starve to death? What about Toadkit? Or Squirrelkit or Pigeonkit?”   
Rosewing sniffled but shook her head, looking up at Hoofstar with sad eyes. “You’re right, they wouldn’t. If you can’t bring yourself to eat for me, or your brother or mother or even yourself, please, at least eat so our kits don’t have to watch you starve from Starclan.” Hoofstar murmured into her ear, burying his muzzle into her soft neck.  
The cream colored queen sniffled but nodded, turning to look at the scrap of fur lying lifelessly next to them in the dark den. “What is it?” she murmured lazily as she pawed it closer to her.   
The clan leader let out a gentle laugh through his nose. “I’m not sure, at first he said it was a squirrel, then a rat, then some strange tw-” Hoofstars meow was interrupted by his mate bursting out in a horrified screech.  
Hoofstar jumped up, frantically looking around the den. “What, what is it?!”  
“It’s Mousekit!” The queen wailed, bringing the limp piece of prey against her and rubbing her face against it. “What?” Hoofstar asked with confusion. He stared at the bundle Rosewing was sobbing against, fearing his mates grief had made her lose herself completely. But as he stared at the limp body he could see his mate's tears washing away the dirt and grime of the bundle, revealing black and white patterned fur.   
“No…” he murmured, before rage overtook him. He turned around, bursting from the nursery with bristling fur. Cats were standing all around the clearing, their fur straight up and some cats peeking out of their dens as Rosewings wails sung through the camp. The orange she-cat Hoofstar had previously spoken to ran up to him, but Hoofstar was distracted by the large grey tabby she-cat with a half eaten bundle next to her paws.   
“No!” he screeched and bolted towards her, barely giving the she-cat time to jump back as he dove to the morsel. He inhaled the scent of the matted fur but could only pick up prey scent, so he began to lick the body clean. Cats gathered around with confused expressions on their faces, and Maggottail poked his head out of the warriors den. When he saw what his leader was doing to the ‘prey’ he’d brought back to camp, an acidic feeling began to build up in his chest. As quietly as he could, he crept out of the warriors den and made his way for the thorn tunnel, breaking into a run as he heard startled and disturbed gasps erupt from the crowds and a mournful yowl echo the clearing.   
“Maggottail!” a furious screech sounded from behind him. The unkempt tom barely had time to look behind him as Hoofstar barreled into him, claws unsheathed and hissing furiously at him.  
“What have you done?!” his leader hissed at him. Maggottail pushed Hoofstar off him and backed up. He threw a look at the thorn tunnel but it was already getting blocked off by cats, everywhere he looked he was met with horrified and enraged looks from his clanmates. “What,” Hoofstar repeated, taking a threatening step towards him. “Have you done?!”   
“I was starving!” Maggottail screeched, looking around at his clanmates. “Well all were!”  
“So you murdered my kits to have a bite to eat?!”   
“What good were they gonna do for the clan?!” Maggottail hissed, turning to face his furious leader. With his lack of denial, cats all around him grew horrified. Emberpaw, who had been watching from the entrance of the apprentices' den, opened her mouth as if she still had chewed up kit inside her jaws.  
“They were kits! They couldn’t hunt, they couldn’t fight, they couldn’t feed themselves!” Maggottail continued. “They would have starved anyway, we might as well have gotten some use out of them while they were still fat!”   
“You monster!” a cry came, and all the cats of the clearing turned their head to the nursery. Rosewing stood, shaking with grief, the dead body of her kit laying between her paws, now completely clean and bare. There was no doubt now, it was a kit lying between her paws. It was kits Maggottail had brought for the clan to eat.   
“Cannibal!” Another cat screeched from the crowd.  
“Fox-heart!”  
“Killer!”  
Maggottail looked around frantically, backing up further and further into the brambles he’d been cornered in. Finally his gaze rested on Rosewing, who was looking at him with despair.  
“I-if…” Maggottailed stammered, before a psychotic smile crossed his face and he turned to face the queen entirely. “If you hadn’t wanted your kits to be hunted and eaten like prey, you shouldn’t have named them after prey!”  
Furious yowls erupted from the crowd of cats. Hoofstar raised his hackles and was preparing to jump at his traitorous clanmate, but before he got the chance to take a single pawstep, a cream colored blur ran through the crowd and tackled Maggottail. The sounds of fighting broke out, hissing and spitting and blood staining the snow and the two cats rolled around in a furious ball.   
Finally a screech blew through the clearing sending ice through the veins of the cats who’d heard it. Rosewing got off of Maggottail, blood dripping from her mouth as the wound on his lifeless, limp neck bled onto the snow.

**Author's Note:**

> Wow look at me writing warrior cats fanfic like I'm in fourth grade again! UwU No but fr, warrior cats is unironically what got me into writing at all because as a kid I loved writing fanfic of it on word. I'd never finish or share any of it, but it was excellent practice for me. Unfortunately, I lost all of them when my first computer broke though  
> I'm currently rereading (and catching up with) the series, and honestly I still really like it.


End file.
